VESA Adaptive-Sync GPUs with FreeSync monitors

[zzz]

Will a GPU with VESA-compliant Adaptive-Sync work perfectly with any monitor that supports FreeSync?

 

[chenw]

Actually you have it the other way round, FreeSync is the GPU side (AMD to be exact), the monitors are Adaptive-Sync.

But yes, AMD's FreeSync fully supports the DP1.2a standard.

 

[Armenius]

To further clarify:
The video card vendor needs to utilize Adaptive-Sync. Right now AMD is the only one doing so through the FreeSync component of their drivers. NVIDIA is still focusing on their own hardware-specific solution called G-Sync, so NVIDIA video cards do not benefit from monitors advertised as "FreeSync."

 

[zzz]

Actually you have it the other way round, FreeSync is the GPU side (AMD to be exact), the monitors are Adaptive-Sync.

No, my monitor supports "FreeSync" and it says that in the OSD menu. If NVIDIA ever comes to their senses and supports VESA Adaptive-Sync, will it work?

 

[Quix]

No, my monitor supports "FreeSync" and it says that in the OSD menu. If NVIDIA ever comes to their senses and supports VESA Adaptive-Sync, will it work?

They're the same thing, so yes.

I too wish Nvidia would come to their senses, but it doesn't look like that's happening.

 

[chenw]

No, my monitor supports "FreeSync" and it says that in the OSD menu. If NVIDIA ever comes to their senses and supports VESA Adaptive-Sync, will it work?

It says it supports FreeSync because 1) it's AMD's name for it, and 2) There are no other GPU vendor that supports variable refrehs rate (VRR) of the DP1.2a standard to give it another name, thus to avoid confusion, they simply state that they support FreeSync, when in fact, they are "Adaptive Sync" capable.

This is really semantics however, but I was just clarifying that FreeSync is DP1.2a VRR tech on the AMD GPU side, Adaptive Sync is on the monitor side.

But to answer your question, if nVidia currently do not support VESA standard VRR, only their proprietary G-Sync (which also has ULMB on their 144hz monitors, as opposed to just VRR for FreeSync or their 60hz G-sync). Intel was slated to support it sometime ago, but benefit to the average desktop consumer would be limited at best, due to the low processing power of iGPUs.

However, while it may be extremely unlikely, I reckon that eventually nVidia is (possibly much) more likely to support the Displayport standard of VRR than letting AMD support G-Sync.

 

[zzz]

Thanks a lot for the info.

If I remember right, FreeSync existed prior to VESA embracing it. If that's the case, it's no wonder there are many monitors out there that use the term FreeSync.

I wasn't going to assume those early models are compatible with the final VESA standard. I've heard early adopters of HDTVs have been screwed, due to standards changing.

It's insane terminology that NVIDIA has an "Adaptive" Vsync option which isn't VESA Adaptive-Sync.

In the mean time of waiting for NVIDIA to get off their ass and start supporting a feature my monitor supports, at least Fast Sync is a step forward.

 

[Armenius]

Thanks a lot for the info.

If I remember right, FreeSync existed prior to VESA embracing it. If that's the case, it's no wonder there are many monitors out there that use the term FreeSync.

I wasn't going to assume those early models are compatible with the final VESA standard. I've heard early adopters of HDTVs have been screwed, due to standards changing.

It's insane terminology that NVIDIA has an "Adaptive" Vsync option which isn't VESA Adaptive-Sync.

In the mean time of waiting for NVIDIA to get off their ass and start supporting a feature my monitor supports, at least Fast Sync is a step forward.

Adaptive VSync existed before Adaptive-Sync. The former is a driver feature that turns off VSync when a game's framerate drops below the attached display's refresh rate, and was added in early 2012. Adaptive-Sync was added to the VESA video standards in mid-2014.

 

[chenw]

FreeSync, AFAIUI, had to use a monitor that inherently has VRR built in, so in effect, FreeSync and VESA Adative Sync cannot exist without one another (the latter would be useless without FreeSync capable GPU driving its VRR). I am not sure if there was any collaboration between AMD and VESA (FreeSync was only annouced AFTER I bought my G-Sync, so I never looked into the details at the time).

VRR has already been implemented in laptop screens as an energy saving feature, it wasn't until nVidia that applied it in gaming in desktop displays, and VESA followed suit with FreeSync.